Archive for October, 2010

“Despite solving perhaps the biggest puzzle of your life do you even need to ask this?”

“Hey come on! Tell me? I was definitely shocked receiving the postcard from you but more than that I wondered where from you got my address after having gone for so long.”

“You are such an idiot Ravi! I was the one to move out not you! I always knew you address. You didn’t know mine.”

“Oh! Sigh!”

“Hey Pablo! Fix the mandap pole slightly towards the left and check with the flower man if he has come or not?”

“Ravi! You worry a lot. We still have a day to get married. Everything will be arranged. Till then let me sink in the fact that we are actually getting married.”

A few months back

“Sir, I have a post card for you.”

“Where is it from?”

“I don’t know sir! The mailing address isn’t given.”

“Alright! Give it to me.”

“Son, whose letter?”

“No mom, it’s not a letter. It’s a postcard from..”

“Hey! Mom! It’s is from Radha. My college friend. This is from her.”

Mom comes out rushing

“What! Radha! What has she written? What does she want now? She had refused to marry you and left for God knows where and now this postcard. What has she written?”

“She says she wants to marry me.”

“What? First refused coldly and then marry. She loved her work and independence more than you my son.”

I don’t know. It’s some kind of a riddle. She has written something and signed off with “find me and marry me.”

“What’s with these girls of today?”

“Mom! I still love her and you know that. She must have gone for some reason. I will find her out.”

“Fine! Go ahead. But I will have a word or two with her first.”

“But mom, her address isn’t here. It’s just a riddle instead of that.”

The day of the marriage

“Ravi, you don’t know how happy I am. I will be moving to India after working three years on the Pennine Way and I will go there as your wife. IMF has approved my application for the Leh-Manali route. I will join with them as an assistant guide but very soon we will have our own company.”

“Of course Radha. I am always with you.”

“Mom must have been angry at me?”

“She wasn’t angry. Plain confused. Even I was but then I knew you well and all what you used to write in your secret diary. My man would have to cross the oceans and come looking for me. I knew it would never be easy to get you but I am glad I have you now.”

“Ravi, I have always loved you more than anything else but I wanted to work of my own and your mom wouldn’t approve so I left without a note. I am happy that you found me and glad that mom accepted me despite all my craziness.”

“But as promised tell me how did you find me out. You must have thought I am all bonkers. Isn’t it?”

“Nah! I knew you were a different kind of girl.”

“Now tell me how you solved the riddle? I am sure I had made it tough.”

“It wasn’t actually tough. Google and Wikipedia zindabad.”

The district of first man would be district of Eden and the mention of Tyne narrowed it down to the county of Cumbria. The mention of the hills and the landscape further pointed towards Cumbria.

The picture was of a rail station that served a colliery and u mentioned something of a heritage rail. I did Google and was hell sure that the picture was of Alston station.

The last few lines and your apparent love for adventure assured me that you worked as a daily guide for the trekkers on the Pennine Way. You clearly mentioned that.

“The next flight to London brought me to your doorstep and here we are about to get married.”